


Fucking Finally

by bunnylunches



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Ficlet, Happy Ending, ITS REALLY SHORT AND BAD PLEASE DONT JUdGE ME, Light Angst, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Tumblr request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 23:06:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12467988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnylunches/pseuds/bunnylunches
Summary: Jughead and Archie are soulmates (but only one of them is privy to that info).





	Fucking Finally

**Author's Note:**

> THIS WAS A TUMBLR REQUEST i wrote it in one sitting jsut really barfed it out so its really bad and unbeta'd but there isn't enough jarchie so i wanted to just get it out there lmfao. follow me on tumblr and request writing or drawing!! riverdaaang.tumblr.com

  They sit across from each other at Pop’s, Jughead with a burger and Archie with fries and a shake. Archie is looking out the window at the dismal sky, absently tracing the paths of birds and watching cars pass in the distance. There’s about a million things he could be thinking of, a million different pieces of their world that have come crashing down at various speeds, so Jughead chooses not to ask. For Jughead though, this is one of those rare days that he gets to spend alone with Archie, which means it’s one of those days that he can’t stop thinking about it, the knowledge that has weighed heavy on him for so long.  
  Archie never saw Jughead’s mark, it being tucked away on his inner thigh. But Archie’s mark, the exact same one Jughead brandishes, has always been on the back of his upper shoulder. Who knows how many times Jughead has seen it by now, saw it for the first time when they were tiny kids, didn’t understand the significance back then. At the time, Jughead had thought it was only a myth, that your soulmate would share the same mark as you, but when he was thirteen he met a couple of his dad’s friends who showed him their own marks. Perfectly identical, soft, light brown birthmarks, his on his neck and hers on the bottom of her wrist. They explained to him that while it’s rare, it’s not just a fable. Some people have soulmates, and those soulmates have twin markings on them, signifying two halves of a whole, two people that some greater force decided belonged together.

  
  Archie and Jughead were seemingly cursed though, where Archie had never really had the chance to look too long or hard at his own mark, much less Jughead’s. He had probably seen it in the mirror, looking at the scrape on his back when they were twelve and Archie crashed his bike trying to jump a homemade ramp they had built, or checking himself out as he got older and became more muscular. Only half of the party knows, and it only becomes more and more pressing as they get older. When they were kids, after they had both finally gotten a loose grasp on the concept of soulmates and the “myth” that you could find yours with a visual signifier, Jughead didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He had seen Archie’s shoulder, many times by that point, knew they were precisely the same size and shape, but had never mentioned it before. So he didn’t do anything for years.  
  
  And the years passed faster than he realized, each day taking them farther away from when Jughead realized they shared the same mark, and then farther away from when he realized that it wasn’t just a legend or folk tale, that it really meant something. Would Archie be mad at this point? That Jughead had known for all these years and had never told him? Was it worth it? Archie was happy with Veronica, and Jughead adored Betty more than he could say. Sure, he knew what they had was vastly different, beyond happiness or adoration or love, but did that mean it was worth tearing apart their current world? And did Archie really not recognize the feeling?  
  
  Suddenly, Jughead is torn from his thoughts, realizes that he’s been staring at the way the light hits Archie’s irises.  
  
“It’s easier with you here. All this mess, I mean.” Archie says, still gazing out the window.  
  
  Jughead’s lip twitches, tugs down briefly at the corner.  
  
“Yeah…” He replies lamely, not having the words.  
  
“I mean it, Jug. I honestly can’t imagine what life could be like without you.” Archie turns his head to lock eyes with Jughead and  _for fuck’s sake_.  
  
  Jughead lowers his head and scrunches his beanie forward and down his face, covering his grimace and hard blush. This stupid asshole. How could he not understand what this feeling was?  
  
“You okay, Jug?” Archie asks, ducking his head minutely like he could peek under Jughead’s hat somehow.  
  
“Archie,” Jughead shoves his beanie back onto his head, sliding out of the seat and standing swiftly.  
  
“Come here.”  
  
  He grabs Archie by the shoulder of his jacket and yanks, pulling him out of the booth with his eyes locked on the front door. Archie stumbles after him, out the door and around the side of the diner where a small outcropping of trees hides them from view of the parking lot.  
  
“What are we doing?!” Archie yelps as Jughead pushes him toward a tree.  
  
“Do you remember what that birthmark on your back looks like? The one right below your left shoulder?”  
  
“Wh- my birthmark?? What? Why?” Archie is looking at Jughead like he’s just grown a second head.  
  
“Do you?!” Jughead demands, gripping Archie’s shoulder desperately, trying not to let the past decade of these thoughts come flooding out of him all at once.  
  
“Kind of? I don’t know! I think so?” Archie seems desperate too, maybe in a different way.  
  
  Jughead groans and scrunches his mouth, determined, steeling himself briefly before shedding the flannel wrapped around his waist and shimmying his pants down to his knees. Archie makes a nervous sound of confusion but Jughead shooshes him tersely before yanking up on the bottom edge of his boxer-briefs and revealing his own birthmark.  
  
  “It looks like this, Archie,  _exactly_  like this.” The words rush out of Jughead breathlessly, like it was the last of the air in his lungs.  
  
  Jughead looks down at the spot, imagining the same shape shifting every so slightly at Archie tenses his shoulder on a hot, shirtless summer day or as he pulls his football gear off. He glances up at Archie through the lock of hair that’s fallen in front of his face.  
  
“ _Exactly_.” He repeats, reassuring himself just as much as Archie.  
  
  For a brief moment Jughead can tell that it hasn’t registered in Archie’s brain, that he’s still confused as the why he was pulled away from his french fries, but then his face shifts as it dawns on him, shifts to something shimmering beneath the surface.  
  
 “That’s…” Archie trails off and Jughead can tell he’s jogging his brain, making sure he remembers what the splotch on his own back looks like.  
  
“Jug,” He trails off again, all of the thoughts flooding into the front of his brain at the same time.  
  
“It’s not a myth, Archie.” Jughead doesn’t move, just glares up at the other boy in hopes that what he’s trying to say registers.  
  
 There’s a pause that feels much longer than it probably was, where Jughead can’t really feel his body or think about anything else other than just this monumental moment that could change the rest of his life. The wind rushes harshly through the trees for just a single gust. And then Archie lets out a shuddering breath, tears his eyes away from Jughead’s thigh to lock eyes with him.  
  
“Shit.” He breathes out.  
  
  And a split second later he’s barreling Jughead backward, pushing him up against a thin tree and hugging him like his life depended on it, one arm wrapped around his chest and the other around his waist. Jughead forgets to breathe for a second as he finds his arms returning the embrace, squeezing Archie like they’ve never touched in their lives and needed it desperately.  
  
“Holy shit,” Archie gasps, pressing his face into Jughead’s neck.  
  
“Holy shit, Jughead.”  
  
  He can feel Archie start to shake against him, his arms and chest trembling like he’s about to burst into tears. But then Archie just starts laughing, quietly at first, and then a bit louder, until it’s all Jughead can hear and it all of the sudden it feels  _so good_. All of the tension leaves Jughead’s body for the first time in months, years even, and he sort of collapses against Archie, overjoyed and promptly teary-eyed.  
  
“Fucking finally.” Jughead mumbles as he nuzzles back into Archie, a tear escaping onto his cheek.


End file.
